One trend in the optical cable art is to use more and ribbon cables. Ultimately, these ribbon cables must be connectorized and spliced. Thus, the optical fibers within the cable must be arranged and marked in an organized, identifiable, compact and easily accessible manner. Because space within a cable is restricted, utilization of such space is a prime consideration in cable design. Efficient utilization of cable space can be best achieved if the fibers of the cable were properly organized, anything less makes the task of finding and working with the right fiber most difficult. Coloring of the plastic coating of nearly every fiber, separating repeat colors into separate groups or bundles, and color coding each group or bundles in a distinguishable manner, are some of the prior art techniques presently employed that permit a craftsman to correctly identify an individual fiber(s) for splicing or connectorizing.
High optical fiber count cables are becoming more and more popular. As the fiber count goes up, so does the complexity of grouping and color coding fibers. Many small size or narrow ribbons (low fiber count) in a cable having many fibers in the aggregate not only create a difficult situation because separation and identification are desired, but movement (bending) of ribbon bundles create strain in the optical fibers and can induce unwanted attenuation and mechanical properties. Furthermore, a large or wide ribbon, not having a appropriate separation means is difficult to connectorize in practice. As a result, prior art practice has been to limit ribbons to generally no more than eight fibers; however, in some cases, sixteen fibers have been used. To solve the above stated problems, there is needed a ribbon cable component that can be folded upon itself, much like an accordion, bear identifying indicia to readily identify a given group and any given group be easily separable from adjoining group(s). It is towards an optical cable component having such features that this invention is directed.